The Artful Escape (2021)

This one's a tough one. This is really more of a visual experience than anything, and honestly if this was just a film or something like it, I would have enjoyed it more than I did playing it. It's not a bad experience, and as short as it is, I definitely recommend everyone to play it, but it just fails to really be a good "video game" for me.

The main thing I do love about this game, and I find it does well more than a lot of others, is that it is strikingly beautiful. You will see depictions of the cosmos, inter-dimensional travel, and representations of the human psyche that genuinely stun you with how gorgeously they are. There were moments where I would just stop moving the in-game character and look at everything in the shot. This is mainly helped, and made incredibly unique, through its almost hand-drawn art style, and the fact that you don't really see these themes represented anywhere else.

What I ended up not liking much was kind of everything else. Again nothing is bad, or even completely boring, it just doesn't really do much for me. The gameplay consists of walking and occasionally jumping, with the odd input memory tests here and there. This isn't terrible due to the incredible visuals, but definitely starts getting old quick. The game also focuses primarily around music, specifically space rock operas, which to be honest is not really my thing. I'm sure others will love it a lot and it will add a lot to the experience, but I just thought it was okay. The characters and story are also not to my preference. I feel like I never cared too much about any of them, and they could have been explored in deeper ways. The overarching story focuses primarily on overcoming external expectations, and learning to be yourself/live your own life, which I of course love, but it never really feels like it's expressed in a way as meaningful as its intended sentiment. (Also it's kinda weird that the story ends with the mc seemingly completely rejecting his past self, which kind of rubs me the wrong way for a story that seems to be about self-acceptance). Also sorry but the dialogue and some of the character animations were really corny to me. That's just my preference though since I grew up not in a hipster city lol.

Anyway, all that being said, I still highly recommend trying this out and just enjoying the experience as a whole. Definitely worth it and enjoyable, just not all that fun to play.

EDIT: Bringing down my score from a 3 to a 2/5. I think I cut the game a lot of slack when I first reviewed it. The gameplay was very basic, boring, and honestly felt unnecessary and the OST was very plain, an absolute sin for a game based around music. The rest of the review still stands, I believe.

This is, in my opinion, the ideal way to make these sorts of games. These lineal experiences with minimal gameplay, that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the story, but with enough of it to justify them not being visual novels or walking simulators.

Gameplay-wise, the game is a platformer with Simon says thrown in the mix, and yes, it’s very basic, even edging on boring sometimes, BUT it’s also the lesser of two evils. Because, if you have a game with great presentation but gameplay sections that feel unnecessary, tedious and/or poorly designed, then the entire experience gets brought down. The flow of the game stops and keeps you away from the real star of the show: Visuals, music or story. Genesis Noir comes to mind as a game that failed at the gameplay-visuals balance.

With the Artful Escape, the star of the show is obviously the art direction, everything the games shows you is absolutely beautiful and full of creativity. As a point of comparison, similar to how Brutal Legend was like being inside a heavy metal album, this is like being inside a space rock album.

Music-wise, it ironically falls flat a bit, none of the tracks really blew me away, but they were good enough. One problem might be that the games encourages you to play the guitar at all times (done with the constant press of a button, my thumb got tired from pressing too much), muffling the background track.

In conclusion, probably won’t blow you away, but it’s short and sweet enough for me to recommend. If you are interested in music as an art form, then you might even get more from it than I did. Personally, my pick for the best game about the power of music is still Wandersong.

This isn’t much a game as it is an exercise in visuals. Everything in The Artful Escape feels like an ode to psychedelics, from the deeply vibrant and colourful backdrops to the story beats that anyone who has ever tripped balls can relate to. This is, simultaneously, its biggest strength and its biggest drawback: it will undoubtedly appeal to everyone looking for a masterful visual experience, and it will frustrate everyone trying to play a game, simply because there’s very little gaming involved between the basic, wonky platforming, the simplistic button pressing mechanics (which I nevertheless found to be an interesting twist on the usual QTE mechanics), and the dialogue choices that don’t really matter. Even the story itself, though it saves some room for surprise, is nothing to write home about, especially since the existential dilemma taking center stage feels more fabricated than naturally weaved in. Its upsides however, even though there aren’t many of them, are really strong. Visually, The Artful Escape is absolutely striking from start to finish, and well worth experiencing for that alone. Its voice acting is also perfectly crafted, and no one - or nothing - ever sounds out of place.

This game won’t be for everyone, but if you keep your expectations in check and/or are artistically inclined, there is definitely a lot here to enjoy and take delight in, especially if you have a predisposition for surreal visuals with beautifully coloured landscapes. The lack of player agency in crafting the musical experience you get was particularly disappointing to me, because at times, the game implies your choices affect the type of musical rabbit hole you go down, which isn’t the case. But ultimately, The Artful Escape is a feel-good, enjoyable experience, which will likely come across as a 4 hour-long warm embrace, so long as you’re not expecting anything rewarding on the gameplay front. 6.5/10.

A platformer where the movement feels bad. Really the worst sin is even the basics do not have a good... umm... game feel?

Besides basic traversal being clunky, I liked the visuals but the story did not engage me at all. It seems to be going for "musical experience" but a really redundant Simon-says combat mechanic was really not diverse and did not give the "feeling" of playing like some music-focused games.

Basically, 80% of this game is just holding right on the stick and even that feels half-baked.

The Artful Escape begins as a simple game about a young man trying to be something that he’s not. Francis Vendetti in stuck is a rut, expected by everyone he knows to follow in the footsteps of his folk superstar uncle. He’s scheduled to perform at a big event his small town is putting on to try to revive their dying economy. But when a strange woman appears the day before the event he finds himself on a journey across the Galaxy to find his own style of music and maybe learn a little about himself along the way.

The gameplay is aggressively simple. You walk in a straight line, jumping over obstacles, but the sound design, the music and the scenery are so stunningly beautiful it’s really more about taking in the sights than anything else. Occasionally you’ll play short concerts, which are this game’s boss fights. They’re done through a simple memory game similar to Simon, if you remember that game. And that’s the entirety of the gameplay throughout the game’s 4 hour runtime. In truth, it would have gotten boring had the game been a bit longer. There’s no challenge, no variety to the gameplay, it’s very straight forward. But the game is just short enough to not need better gameplay.

The Artful Escape is an experience more than it is a game. Shredding my guitar across the Galaxy, blasting glorious music whilst staring in awe of some of the most beautiful intergalactic landscapes and uniquely bizarre alien characters I’ve ever seen was a joy. The story was completely bonkers, but still somehow grounded in likeable and relatable characters that kept me pushing forward to learn more. It’s a short, but very sweet adventure that lasts for what I thought was the perfect amount of time. This is the kind of game that you put your headphones on, grab a cold drink and immerse yourself in for a half an afternoon.

Ok, so on a previous update I said that this game "works pretty well" as trans allegory and that you can "play the game with that interpretation on the back of your mind". I was wrong.

Just a few scenes further down the line it becomes clear that the trans allegory is the intended reading. I mean..

(spoilers below)

You find this trumpet being that tells you that...

Then you meet this weird-looking alien

and they tell you to go into their wardrobe to change your clothes. So you customise your character however you like, including clearly gender non-conforming pieces. And you literally come out of the closet..

You then go talk to this guy who ask you if you are Francis (the main character's name)...

whom you can correct by stating your chosen name.

And then you go back to the alien who warns you against TERFS

Of course those are just the more on-the-nose elements.

I love the colourful visuals and trippy dialogue.

One reviewer commented that the game works pretty well as a trans allegory and he was not wrong at all. You can easily play the game with that interpretation on the back of your mind and it works really well. Although this dialogue actually works even better as a non-binary narrative.

Very pleasant to look at, the plot is interesting enough to keep you moving, and it's very short. There were times when the guitar noodling could be a little repetitive but it's still a solid little title.

There's not much to the game besides that. There's some rudimentary platforming and a bit of Simon says, it really is just an audio-visual treat.

Highly recommend.

Just like the title of the game says....Its The artful Escape from ur normal life and the rest of the games.A wild beautiful ride across many places where each place doesnt fail to impress you with its beauty.Just playing for the visual stuff is enough since its a small game with around 3 hours to complete it.One thing i didnt like was that the gameplay wasn't much.It was just running and pressing some buttons.They couldve brought in some more gameplay to make it entertaining but since it doesnt drag too long the game ended before i got really bored from doing the same thing again and again.

I would say definitely give it a try if u love beautiful looking games and if u dont mind the simple gameplay....Its something you can play just to chill and stare at something beautiful.

Oh and one thing i really want to address is that the voice acting was marvelous.

I’m not quite done yet and I don’t have a verdict on how I feel about this get just ye, but I will say that Game Pass is a weird fit for me. So far I have played a number of games that I probably would have bought sight unseen if not for Game Pass. Carto, Spiritfarer, The Wild at Heart, Psychonauts 2, The Artful Escape, Genesis Noir, and more. I feel like Microsoft’s idea is that these are the game people try risk free without purchase, while games like Forza Horizon 5 or Back 4 Blood are the incentives to subscribe. But all of these indie games are games I would buy so I feel like I’m the wrong target for Game Pass even though it serves me well. I’m sure my one purchase won’t make or break a small dev, but it is interesting to me that Game Pass actually reduces my purchasing and disincentivizes me from buying games I would normally buy. Meanwhile I continue to dish out big bucks to Sony and Nintendo because I have to buy their games. And even when I do get access to free games via PS Now or PS+, very often they are games I wouldn’t have otherwise bought like Rage 2, a fun game but unlikely one I’d spend money on. It’s interesting to think about.

I worry about Annapurna’s long term sustainability if their devs continue to pick up celebrity voice actors. It can’t be cheap, especially on an indie budget. I also think that it doesn’t bring anything that seasoned voice actors don’t already bring to the table, other than a bit of press buzz. I’m not disparaging celebrity actors or their abilities, but anytime I see an ensemble cast of Hollywood A listers attached to a project, I worry that someone is overcompensating for some failing in the work. So far that doesn’t seem to be the case with The Artful Escape but I’m skeptical about the longevity of the tactic’s successes. Paste published a piece that touches on this a bit, especially in relation to the recent 12 Minutes:

Hey, Videogames, Let's Cool It with the Famous Actors for a Bit